Yesterday I stopped by a job my son is working on in a neighboring town, repairing damaged trusses on an 1870 era brick meeting house. Missing slates allowed the heels of two trusses and the plate below to rot out, resulting in a major sag. The trusses were shored up from inside several years ago and the repairs are now in progress. The crew installed a temporary roof over the working area and started taking out the damaged parts. The top chords of two trusses will be replaced and parts of the lower chords and the plate will be scarfed in, and steel rods added per structural engineer. There is an elliptical barrel shaped plaster and wood ceiling below the scissor trusses and it was interesting to see how that was made with rough 1x boards scabbed together with nails and hung from the rafters with a few 1xs. The substantial soffet too was hung on crude blocks from the rafter tails and supports my long-held view that inertia is a major factor in the survival of old structures like this. It's always interesting to see the details when you get a chance.
Images and audio available on Instagram with Miles' description of the rigging and planned repairs. https://www.instagram.com/p/C6onZUlrp6T/
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by Tom M King
